The following events occurred in May 1978:
May 1, 1978 (Monday) The 35-member Revolutionary Council of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, led by Nur Muhammad Taraki, held a meeting three days after Taraki had overthrown the existing government to form a Communist state, in order to select a cabinet of ministers. Taraki was approved as Chairman of the Council, equivalent to a prime minister, with Babrak Karmal as the Deputy Premier. The United States allowed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to open the Palestine Information Office in Washington, D.C., but did not establish diplomatic relations nor recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The office closed in 1987 after the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act was signed into law by U.S. President Reagan, in that the PLO was on the United States Department of State list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. An exchange of prisoners was made at the U.S. Embassy in East Berlin as East Germany released Alan Van Norman, a 20-year-old American college student who had been caught trying to help a family escape to West Germany, and the U.S. released Robert Thompson, a former U.S. Air Force clerk turned Soviet spy, who had sold photos of hundreds of secret documents to the Soviet Union. Thompson had been incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison for more than 13 years after being arrested in 1965. Van Norman had been held for more than nine months after being sentenced to 30 months in solitary confinement in an East German jail. In Algiers, the Algerian Cup championship of the North African nation's soccer football league was won by 9th-place CR Belcourt over 4th-place USK Alger, on a penalty shootout after the teams were still tied, 0 to 0, following 30 minutes of extra time. Belcourt outscored Alger in the shootout, 2 to 0. The match was played before 80,000 people at the Stade du 5 Juillet. William Steinberg, who had been in declining health for several years, conducted a concert of the New York Philharmonic orchestra with an appearance by Isaac Stern as a guest violinist. Steinberg was hospitalized after the concert was over and died 15 days later. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed a decision by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that had dismissed the indictment of Dr. Jeffrey R. MacDonald for the 1970 murder of his wife and two daughters, striking down the appellate court's finding that Dr. MacDonald had been denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial. The Düsseldorf Panther, the oldest semi-pro American football team in Germany, was founded in Düsseldorf in West Germany. In the years that followed, the team would win eight German championships and the 1995 Eurobowl. Born: Belal Jadallah, Palestinian journalist and war correspondent; in Gaza City, State of Palestine (killed by Israeli shelling of Gaza, 2023) James Badge Dale, American TV and film actor best known for 24; in New York City Lorene Scafaria, American film and TV director and screenwriter; in Holmdel, New Jersey Died: Aram Khachaturian, 74, Soviet-Armenian composer and conductor Sylvia Townsend Warner, 84, British novelist and poet known for Lolly Willowes (1926) and The Corner That Held Them (1948)
May 2, 1978 (Tuesday) The Canadian-founded worldwide Greenpeace environmentalist and anti-war organization launched its flagship, Rainbow Warrior, after purchasing and remodeling the British government trawler Sir William Hardy. Died: Vong Savang, 46, former Crown Prince of Laos as son of the last monarch, Sisavang Vatthana, died in a Pathet Lao re-education camp.
May 3, 1978 (Wednesday) The first use of an electronic messaging system to send an unsolicited message to a large number of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, now commonly called spamming, was made when a representative of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Gary Thuerk, sent the same message, simultaneously, to 393 users of ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The message informed all recipients that "Digital will be giving a product presentation of the newest members of the DECsystem-2020 family," inviting them to attend sessions on May 9 and May 11 at hotel lobbies in Los Angeles and San Mateo, and invited them to "please feel free to contact the nearest DEC Office for more information about the exciting DECsystem-2020 family." The ARPANET manager responded by noting that the advertisement was "a flagrant violation of the use of ARPANET as the network is to be used for official U.S. government business only," and adding that "appropriate action is being taken to preclude its occurrence again." R.S.C. Anderlecht, runner-up for the 1976 Belgian Cup, defeated FK Austria Wien, winner of the 1977 Austrian Cup, 4 to 0, to win the European Cup Winners' Cup before a crowd of 48,679 people at Parc des Princes in Paris. The successful stage musical Annie, which had been running in the U.S. on Broadway since April 21, 1977, premiered on London's West End at the Victoria Palace Theatre for the first of 1,485 performances. Andrea McArdle, who had opened the title role on Broadway, appeared for the first 40 performances on the West End before being succeeded by Briton Ann Marie Gwatkin. Died: Roberto Pineda, 25, Mexican horse racing jockey, was killed while competing in the U.S. at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, when a horse ridden by another jockey, Rudy Turcotte, broke her foreleg and caused a chain reaction with two other horses. Pineda was riding the horse "Easter Bunny Mine" in the second race of the day when Turcotte's horse, Easy Edith, collapsed. Pineda was thrown head-first from Easter Bunny Mine, and two other horses went down in a pileup. Pineda had severe head injuries and died at a nearby hospital.
May 4, 1978 (Thursday) The South African Defence Force (SADF) invaded Angola as the first part of Operation Reindeer against SWAPO, the Namibian independence guerrilla organization. The first phase, the Battle of Cassinga, started as an airborne assault on SWAPO positions. Angola's government reported that 624 civilians and combatants were killed, of whom 150 were soldiers from Cuba, and 298 were teenagers and children. Angola then appealed to the United Nations Security Council for intervention. Communist activist Henri Curiel, 63, was murdered in Paris. Born: Erin Andrews, American sportscaster and television personality; in Lewiston, Maine Daisuke Ono, Japanese voice actor and winner of two Seiyu Awards; in Sakawa, Kōchi Prefecture
May 5, 1978 (Friday) Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, both natives of Merrick, New York, who had completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Penn State University creamery, opened an ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont, with an investment of $12,000, creating Ben & Jerry's, which would become a business with hundreds of locations and products sold in grocery stores. The neutral nation of Austria and the Communist nation of Hungary announced jointly that they had agreed to open the border by abolishing requirements for a travel visa to travel between the countries. In the Netherlands, Ajax Amsterdam and AZ Alkmaar, who had finished in second and third place, respectively, in the Eredivisie, the highest level of Dutch soccer football, faced each other before 50,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam in the finals of the KNVB Cup. Alkmaar won, 1 to 0. Born: Ismael El Massoudi, Moroccan-born French professional boxer and WBA welterweight champion 2011 to 2012
May 6, 1978 (Saturday) United Nations Security Council Resolution 428 was approved unanimously, 15 to 0, reminding all UN Member States to refrain from using threats and use of force in their international relations, and specifically condemning South Africa for using Namibia (at the time, South-West Africa) as a staging point for Operation Reindeer, an invasion of Angola. The Security Council threatened punitive measures if the South Africa Defence Forces made another armed invasion."Complaint by Angola Against South Africa", UNSC Resolution 428, UNDocs.org The SADF terminated Operation Reindeer four days later.
The Scottish Cup, the championship game of the Scottish Football League tournament, was played before 61,563 people at Hampden Park in Glasgow between Rangers F.C. of Glasgow and Aberdeen F.C., who were first and second, respectively, during the 1977–78 Scottish Premier Division season. Rangers were leading by two goals before an Aberdeen goal in the 85th minute for a final score of Rangers 2, Aberdeen 1. In England, Ipswich Town F.C., 18th out of 22 in Football League play (11 win, 13 draws and 18 losses) won the FA Cup, defeating 5th best Arsenal F.C. (21–10–11), 1 to 0 in front of 100,000 fans at Wembley. The thoroughbred horse Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the Kentucky Derby, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Alydar. Born: Tony Estanguet, French slalom canoeist and winner of three Olympic gold medals for the men's canoe slalom in 2000, 2004 and 2012; in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Died: Ethelda Bleibtrey, 76, American Olympic swimmer, winner of 3 gold medals in the 1920 Olympics, later inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame
May 7, 1978 (Sunday) Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro was informed by his kidnappers that, since the Italian government had refused their final demands to release 13 prisoners, he was going to be killed. Moro was allowed to send a final letter to his wife and wrote, "They have told me that they are going to kill me in a little while, I kiss you for the last time." The first episode of the long-running Philippine television variety program GMA Supershow, hosted by German Moreno, was broadcast at noon on the GMA Network. GMA Supershow would run for 978 episodes over more than 18 years before concluding on January 26, 1997. Ricardo Cardona of Colombia won the World super bantamweight title of the World Boxing Association by defeating reigning champion Hong Soo-hwan of South Korea in a bout in Seoul. Cardona would hold the title for almost a year before losing to Leo Randolph on May 4, 1980. After being denied permission to leave Saudi Arabia for almost six months, and having his U.S. passport taken away because of a contract dispute with Saudi government officials, an American businessman from Texas, John L. McDonald, escaped the country by substituting himself for the contents of a shipping crate that had cleared customs after he had paid for freight transportation at the Dhahran airport. After the crate was sent to freight pickup at an airport in Europe, McDonald, president of Heritage Building Systems International of Houston, climbed out and went to a local U.S. Embassy.
May 8, 1978 (Monday) Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria made the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, without supplemental oxygen. The pair brought along oxygen tanks in case of an emergency, and endured tiredness and confusion from hypoxia, but reached the top. Norway officially began production from the Frigg gas field, a large source of natural gas, administered by the French company Elf Aquitaine, in the Polar Sea. David Berkowitz, the serial killer known as "the Son of Sam", entered a guilty plea to 6 counts of second-degree murder and 7 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of 25 years in prison for the six murders, but, as a condition of his plea, he was eligible for parole within 25 years. Rodrigo Carazo Odio was sworn for a four-year term as the 36th President of Costa Rica.